Removing a brake on progress

Further reform should abolish administrative rankings for State-owned enterprises and public institutions

The seventh government restructuring plan since reform and opening-up was issued by the State Council this month. These reforms will repay historical debts, because many similar departments of the planned economy completed such reforms 15 years ago.

The reform plan favors functional transformation. The abolition of the Ministry of Railways will see the government's administrative functions performed by a State railways administration, supervised by the Ministry of Transport, while a new railway corporation will run its commercial operations. The dissolution of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, another product of the planned economy, also reflects a policy transformation from population control to population service. It's appropriate to merge the Commission with the Ministry of Health in order to administer medical care, public health and family planning services and plan the allocation of resources to them. However, instead of the proposed national health and family planning commission, the merged entity could still be called the Ministry of Health.